Exhibition De l’Allemagne, 1800-1939.German Thought and Painting, from Friedrich to Beckmann.

Acknowledgments:This project was supported by the LOUVRE INTERNATIONAL CIRCLE, with the collaboration of the AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE LOUVRE and additional support from BMH AVOCATS.

The publication of the exhibition catalogue was made possible through the patronage of Rudolf-August Oetker Stiftung.
The exhibition design is supported by Deloitte.
Public relations for the exhibition are supported by the German National Tourist Board.

Anselm Kiefer's work is supported by Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery.

This exhibition, comprising over two hundred works, offers a reflection on the main themes that structured German thinking from 1800 to 1939. It places artworks and their artists—including Caspar David Friedrich, Paul Klee, Philipp Otto Runge and Otto Dix—in the intellectual context of their time, and confronts them with the writings of great thinkers, chief among whom is Goethe.

German history from the late 18th century to the eve of World War II is marked by the difficulty of establishing political unity at a time when the concept of a Europe of nations was gaining hold. A multi-faith country characterized by geographical discontinuity, the instability of its borders and different or even antagonistic political and cultural contexts, Germany needed to establish the underlying unity of all Germans, from Bavaria to the Baltic, from the Rhineland to Prussia.

The concept of Kultur, inherited from Enlightenment thought, seemed most likely to constitute the breeding ground from which a modern German tradition could emerge. The Napoleonic occupation fostered awareness of this unity and provided the political background for the beginnings of Romanticism, at the start of our timeline—while at its end, the rise of Nazism highlighted the tragic dimension of this concept, without managing to destroy it. The exhibition analyzes the role of the fine arts, from Romanticism to New Objectivity, in this period of great artistic innovation that sought to invent a new German tradition.

Organized by:

Sébastien Allard, chief curator in the Department of Paintings, Musée du Louvre; Danièle Cohn, university professor, director of the Centre d’Esthétique et de Philosophie de l’Art (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne); Johannes Grave, professor at the University of Bielefeld.

General commissioners:
Henri Loyrette, President and Director of the Musée du Louvre; Andreas Beyer, Director of the German Center for the History of Art, Paris.